


love in a photograph

by cynosures



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Fluff, Sad Ending, Uni AU, kid AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-10
Updated: 2015-10-10
Packaged: 2018-04-25 18:14:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 693
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4971292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cynosures/pseuds/cynosures
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>louis and harry take a polaroid photo every day since year 2. when harry goes off to college, he realizes that there's no one in the photo.</p>
            </blockquote>





	love in a photograph

**Author's Note:**

> i saw an au on twitter, i obviously know nothing from the brit school system as i have lived in asia my whole life. title is from ed sheeran's photograph.

It's on Harry's sixth birthday when his mom gets him a polaroid camera. It's a OneStep Polaroid Land Camera his mom bought from a thrift store down the street. Little Harry is excited to bring his birthday gift to class to take pictures with his best friend, Louis. Harry runs into their room and sees Louis sitting on the chairs, dirtying his fingers as he paints a photo of a tree.

"Lou!" says Harry, gripping his polaroid in his right hand while waving the left one into Louis' direction. "I got a new camera!"

Louis wipes his paint stained hands on his new white Adidas shirt and gently grabs the camera from Harry.

"Why does it look weird?" Louis asks as he taps on the lens. 

"My mum said that when we take a picture, it will come out of that thing." Harry points to the thin rectangular opening at the bottom of the camera.

"That sounds fun!" Louis says, all giddy and excited. "Let's take a picture together!"

Louis holds out the camera in front of them with his right and Harry supports it with his left. Harry sticks his tongue out for a pose and Louis crosses his eyes. They snap for a photo. The flash goes off and in a few seconds, a photo of them comes out. 

-

It has become a habit for Harry and Louis to take pictures using Harry's polaroid every single day since that time in Year 2 when Louis assured Harry that they would be best friends forever. Harry chimed that it would be great to see the changes they go through every day. During spring breaks, they would meet up at the local park to have a picnic, play football, or talk about anything under the sun and take their daily photo. Every Christmas, Louis would come over to Harry's house, with two santa hats to use as their props. Every New Year, they would meet at the plaza to watch and take photos with the fireworks together. 

-

Secondary School comes and Louis and Harry barely have time for each other. Louis joins the football team and Harry the art club. Two unrelated cliques mean nothing for the inseparable forces named Louis and Harry. They take the pictures in between classes or during their lunch breaks to maintain their tradition and their friendship as well. Each day, the little box in Harry's room which contains the pictures get a bit more crowded but he isn't complaining at all. 

Graduation comes and the dynamic duo cannot believe that they're parting ways as of the following week. Harry is off to Manchester Metropolitan University to pursue a course in Psychology while Louis is taking a gap year to figure out what he truly wants to do. They take their last picture right after everyone throws their graduation caps in the air. 

-

College comes and Harry is settled into his dorm, waiting for his roommate to arrive. Two hours in and there's a knock on the door. 

"Hey!" says a blond headed boy wearing a dri fit shirt and Nike sweats. He has a heavy accent, obviously not coming from Britain. "Me name's Niall. I'm from Ireland."

"Harry." he extends his hand to shake his new roommate's hand but Niall leans in for a hug. "Cheshire." 

"Great. Love me a british boy." Niall grins as he throws his suitcase on the empty bed. "What's that?"

Harry looks to the direction of Niall's finger. He's pointing to the box that contains all of his pictures with Louis from Year 2 to Year 13. A box worth 11 years of friendship and brotherhood. 

"It's a box of the pictures I took with my best pal, Louis. We took a photo every day since Year 2 until graduation." He takes the box from his desk and brings them over to Niall.

"May I see?" Niall smiles at him.

Harry nods and hands the box over. Niall takes off the lid and examines the pictures. A confused look appears on his face.

"Is anything wrong?" Harry asks, looking concerned and confused as well.

"Mate, these are all just pictures of yourself."


End file.
